1. Field of the Invention
The current invention relates to a system for creating custom fragrances, and specifically to a system for creating custom fragrances in an objective and repeatable process.
2. Discussion of Related Prior Art
The vast majority of fragrances are made by specific formulas that are mass marketed to the public. These fragrances may be made into perfumes and colognes, lotions, soaps, body washes and other personal hygiene products. These are usually determined by the companies and not custom made by the customer.
There have been some attempts to allow a user to make custom products such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,120 B1 Swaab, Jun. 11, 2002, “Apparatus for Blending and Fabricating Personalized Lipstick”. This deals with custom color for lipstick and does not deal with the creation of custom fragrances.
U.S. Patent Application 2008/0027820 A1 Brill, Jan. 31, 2008, “Methods and Systems for the Creation of Consumer-Customization and Commercialization of Goods” discloses customization of wines but does not disclose any description of how to customize fragrances.
U.S. Patent Application 2014/0032356 A1 Chuang et al., Jan. 30, 2014, “Method and System for Selling Custom Products” deals with the general idea of customization of products, but requires the customer to send their customization preferences to a central server. Obviously, there is no way to electronically sample fragrances, so this cannot apply to the customization of fragrances.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,245 B1 Dirksing et al., Feb. 4, 2003, “Method for Providing Personalized Cosmetics” and U.S. Patent Application 2003/0014324 A1 Donovan et al., Jan. 16, 2003, “Techniques for Synthesizing and Distributing Personal Care Products” have a similar problem as Chuang above, being that there is no way of remotely sampling scents.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,764 Meador et al., Jul. 16, 1991, “Apparatus for Designing Personalized Perfume” discloses a group of blotters held together as a single unit for sampling scents. However, blotters are not intended to be added or deleted and therefore can only be used as a fixed group of scents.
US Patent Application 2008/0131858 A1 Gordon, Jun. 5, 2008, “Method and Apparatus for Creating a Custom Blended Fragrance” describes a method of creating custom fragrances based upon a personality test. This tends to be very subjective and not accurate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,155 Saute, May 6, 1997, “Method of Creating Fragrances In Situ” requires that the mixed scents be applied on the customer's skin. This will only apply to fragrances mixed in-situ.
These attempts to create perfumes are typically subjective and random. A user would simply smell various scents and mix them without regard to groupings or volatility of the scent. In which case, some fragrances would dominate the others or the end result of the fragrance composition would be poorly structured thus not having an appealing odor.
There was also little consideration given to the time-changing aspects of the fragrance. Therefore, a fragrance which is initially appealing may become less appealing over the course of the day.
Also, there has been little effort made to predict and reduce the amount of conflicting fragrances.
When customers buy premixed fragrances that are not custom made, they do not have a choice about their contents. They cannot adjust the fragrances to be more gender specific or gender neutral (i.e. unisex), adjust the tenacity, or concentrations. The customers also do not have the ability to create new fragrances for special occasions, seasons or holidays.
Currently, there is a need for a more accurate system for creating custom fragrances which is less subjective, takes into account the customer's desires, the time-changing aspects of the fragrance, and can save the parameters of each customer's unique scents.